


Some Sleep Would Help

by ivyness



Series: AU Yeah August 2018 [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Single Parent, Fluff, Kidfic, M/M, au yeah august, except not at all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 12:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15558042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivyness/pseuds/ivyness
Summary: DJ’s got a project he’s working on and gets a bit stuck. He’s not eating, drinking, or sleeping and he’s ignoring anyone who tries to interfere. It’s Tony’s turn to step in.





	Some Sleep Would Help

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Bedtime Stories and Nightmares](https://archiveofourown.org/works/571547) by [scifigrl47](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scifigrl47/pseuds/scifigrl47). 



> I'm borrowing Scifigrl47's OC DJ Stark-Rogers. The only thing you need to know in order to follow this fic is that DJ is Tony and Steve's son. If you want to know more go read Sci's fics, they're seriously amazing.

“Do you want an apple?”

DJ shrugged.

“Water?”

DJ sank further into his hunched shoulders.

“You want to tell me about what you’re working on?”

All Tony got was a vigorous shake of the head no. 

“Deej, you know how this goes. You know I know how this goes. I get it. But you need to eat and sleep and shower and you haven’t had a glass of water since you started yesterday.” 

DJ’s eyes welled up with unshed tears of frustration and he angrily jabbed at the keyboard in front of him.

“You know it’s our anniversary soon.” Tony said, “Me and Steve’s.” 

DJ didn’t look up. 

“I’m still trying to figure out a good gift for Captain America. Maybe find homes for all the stray dogs in New York. Sponsor some starving artists. Establish universal health care. World peace.” DJ was ignoring him but Tony was used to talking to himself. 

Tony kept going until he heard a bang as DJ smacked the table with his palm.

“Won’t work.”

“Yeah, programs are tricky like that sometimes,” Tony agreed. “Is it giving you errors or is your output wrong?”

“Won’t work.”

“Mhmm.” Tony scooted closer so he could take a look at the screen. DJ stared at the floor, pulling at the ends of his oversized sweatshirt.

“Yeah, I can see where you started getting tired. You start jumping around a bit without waiting until you’ve finished clearly defining your functions, your brain running ahead of your fingers.”

Tony looked over at DJ who remained fixated on the hems of his sweatshirt. “Having trouble with words, botboy?”

DJ shrugged, noncommittal.

“Okay.” Tony said and got up to walk to the cabinets on the far side of the couch and pulled down some of Steve’s art supplies. Bright, well-sharpened colored pencils, lines of charcoal, heavy markers and thick pads of drawing paper. Tony plopped it all down on the table in front of DJ and swept aside the screen DJ was working from. 

“Okay,” He repeated. “Words are no good so let’s draw it out. Show me exactly how you envision the data flowing.” 

DJ hummed, picking through the supplies and settling on the blue pencil and then the pink and green markers. After 20 minutes they relocated to the floor. After 30, they spread out Steve’s largest roll of paper and taped to it the pages they’d already worked on. 

After 45 minutes of diagramming, DJ looked up at Tony with a streak of green running from his cheek to his nose, charcoal on his chin and a huge grin on his face. 

“I think we’re about done. Just one more thing and it’ll be perfect.” Tony said as he took his purple marker and swiped it across DJ’s forehead. He laughed as DJ tackled him, drawing his own yellow marker across Tony’s nose.

Laughing, Tony pawed at DJ’s side as he continued to color in Tony’s arm. “Alright, I think we’re good. It’s way past our bedtimes. Jarvis, you mind making a digital copy of this for us?”

“Already done, sir.” Jarvis replied.

“Thanks Jarvis,” Tony said, hauling DJ up to his feet as he waved his own thanks into the nearest camera. “C’mon botboy, let’s recharge. This’ll all still be here in the morning.”

After dropping DJ off in bed, Tony headed up to his own room. “Jarvis, is Steve asleep?”

“No, sir. He has stayed up waiting for you and DJ to finish.”

Tony paused outside his and Steve’s bedroom. He took a deep shaky breathe. “Okay. that’s okay.”

Steve was in soft PJs, leaning against the headboard with a book in his hands, still stuck on the first page. He looked up as Tony let himself in. “Is he okay?”

“Yeah, we’re okay.” Tony said, catching Steve up as he drowsily changed into pajamas. “I was worried we wouldn’t be but he’s a lot easier to distract than I was at his age.”

“Cleverer too.” Steve said, dimpling. Tony loved his stupid dimples.

“Doesn’t make it any easier though. You put so much time and effort into trying to get something to work and sometimes your hands just can’t keep up with your brain. You know what you need to do, you can practically see the solution. It always feels like you’re so close, like if you were just that tiny bit smarter or pushed yourself just a little harder for a little longer everything would click.”

Tony sighed, leaning into Steve’s warmth. “Never works that way though.”

Steve rubbed at the marker on Tony’s face, grinning. “My two Stark boys, always pushing themselves too hard.”

“Hypocrite,” Tony replied, smacking at Steve’s hand. “I at least know never to trust my late night engineering, never remember what I built the next morning. DJ’s talented though. He’s got a knack for it, can think in that way, you know? Make his thoughts run like a program. He loves it.” Tony almost sounded sad in his praise. 

“And that’s why we have to help him set his boundaries. Can’t let him keep pushing himself to the breaking point or he’s going to end up hating it.”

“But I did good, right?” Tony asked jokingly, poking at Steve’s arm, eyes searching.

Steve pulled him close and wrapped Tony up in the biggest hug he could. “Yes, you were amazing.”


End file.
